Front de Gauche

The Front de Gauche, also known as the Left Front, is a French electoral federation that was created in 2008 as an alliance of the French Communist Party and smaller leftist parties, including Jean-Luc Melenchon's Socialist Party of France dissenters. Melenchon assisted in the creation of the front due to his opposition to the growing centrism of the Socialist Party, and the party identified as a left-wing party; its opponents called it a "far-left" party, and it was also described as communist, anti-capitalist, and anti-liberal. The party's views included creating a ministry for women and equality, banning market-based layoffs, raising the minimum wage, instituting a 35-hour workweek, setting the retirement age to 60, creating public industries for environmental industries such as water and energy, regularizing illegal immigrants, withdrawing France from NATO, recognizing Palestinian independence, and investing in arts, culture, education, and research. In 2012, it held 10/577 National Assembly seats, and it would hold 4/74 European Parliament seats in 2014.